Spotlight: V. Maria Farmakis
Markers:
A classic dilemma: your soul seeks the unstructured, creative side of life and yet your strength, so to speak, is in numbers. What to do, what to do.
Little did Maria Farmakis know, when she was graduated with a degree in Business Administration and Accounting, that her destiny would lead her to a career in advertising. But first, said Destiny: master reinsurance.
Hmm. So like destiny, no? Uncomplaining, Maria answered the call, taking a position with TransAmerica Corp in Charlotte, learning the ambiguities of leveraging risk as well as the pleasures of managing large quantities of money. “It turned out to be an interesting gig,” says Maria, “I learned client service with my core group of ten or fifteen companies.” Her eyes sparkle mischievously. “And there was always the interesting death claim.”
After a couple of years and a second job with Scottish Re, Maria brought her singular dedication and personality to LKM. Our gain.
Family:
The only daughter of a Greek immigrant, and sandwiched between two brothers, Maria’s life has been anything but boring. Dad still splits his time between the family’s home in Roanoke and the ancestral home in Athens. Mom retired to the life nautical traveling the East Coast waterways by boat. Brother Nicholas lives in D.C., while older sibling Costas calls Charlotte home. Maria shares her life with her Swedish “sambo.” Hakan.
Passions:
A music aficionado since she can remember, Maria says all her days are accompanied by music. Cookbooks are her nonfiction genre of choice. She constantly indulges the urge to make life more beautiful, loves to travel with her boyfriend and has a calling to “do something to help save the planet.”. Snow, rain and cold she finds exhilarating. Like many a poetic spirit, the sea brings her peace.
Words:
“We are the music makers. And we are the dreamers of dreams.
Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers, on whom the pale moon gleams,
Yet we are the movers and shakers of the world for ever, it seems.” – Arthur O’Shaughnessy
